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Temperature Goes Down, Stove Heats Up by Jared Carrabis
Tazawa to sign, Arbitration to Varitek?, Lowe to Boston? and more!


According to a report out of Japan, 22-year-old Junichi Tazawa has rejected offers from the Seattle Mariners, Atlanta Braves and Texas Rangers leaving just one offer remaining on the table. The Japanese right-hander reportedly only received four offers and with three of them rejected, he is expected to announce his decision to sign with the Boston Red Sox some time next week. His announcement to sign with Boston could come as early as Monday but could come any time from now until the end of this week. Tazawa will be the third pitcher to come from Japan to the Red Sox’ 40-man roster but will be the first with no professional experience under his belt.

The Boston Herald is reporting that the Red Sox are expected to offer arbitration to their captain, Jason Varitek. General manager, Theo Epstein, has unt...READ MORE!

Published on November 30, 2008 See Comment(s)
Picking Away At The Captain by Jared Carrabis
Sox offer Varitek one year deal, is it enough?


Rob Bradford of WEEI.com is reporting that the Red Sox have made an initial offer to catcher, Jason Varitek, of just one year. The terms of the one-year deal have no been disclosed to the public nor the media but what we can confirm is that the salary in this offer does not mirror the annual salary of Jorge Posada’s $13.1 million per season.

Varitek’s agent, Scott Boras, entered the GM meetings in early November and announced to the baseball world that Jorge Posada’s 4-year, $52 million contract would serve as a benchmark for the contract that it would take to acquire (or retain) the services of Jason Varitek.

Of course the one-year offer to Varitek certainly isn’t the Red Sox last stitch effort to re-sign their captain of the past four seasons. Theo Epstein could withdraw this offer later on and present the Boston backstop with a more enticing offer where both sides get a ...READ MORE!

Published on November 24, 2008 See Comment(s)
Roccin' In Boston? by Jared Carrabis
Sox meet with Baldelli, offer contract to Japanese pitcher

With the departure of Coco Crisp via trade to help bolster the Red Sox bullpen and in turn handing over the fulltime starting job to Jacoby Ellsbury, the Red Sox are now without a fourth outfielder. According to Boston.com’s Nick Cafardo, Rocco Baldelli met with the Red Sox at Fenway Park to converse about the future of the outfielder’s playing career. Baldelli has an option remaining on his contract for the 2009 season for $6 million but the Rays chose not to pick up his option and instead bought him out for $4 million.

Baldelli suffered injuries worthy of some time on the disabled list in 2005 (torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee) and in 2007 (hamstring). In 2008, doctors discovered that Baldelli suffered from a mitochondrial disorder that caused extreme fatigue in his muscles. He remained out of action all season long before getting his first at bat on August 10 pl...READ MORE!

Published on November 23, 2008 See Comment(s)
Sox Talk Radio by Jared Carrabis
Show #2


On today's show, we'll be discussing a few baseball related topics:

-Tim Lincecum capturing the National League Cy Young Award
-The first day of free agency
-Jason Bay
-Matt Holliday
-David Ortiz's comments regarding another power hitter
-Nomar Garciaparra (as usual)
-Adrian Gonzalez

and much, much more.

Joining us on the phone will be John Karalis from RedsArmy.com

Tune in to hear how John compares David Ortiz to Kevin Garnett!



For future reference, if you want to call into the show to discuss any baseball related topic, call (646) 721-9624.


READ MORE!

Published on November 20, 2008 See Comment(s)
Randomocity meets curiosity by Mike Ghika
Pedroia decorates shelf as Hot Stove begins to take shape


•Since the creation of the Silver Slugger Award in 1980, a player has now taken home the Hardware Triple Crown (MVP, Gold Glove, and Silver Slugger) in the same season 23 times. Barry Bonds (1990, 1992, 1993) and Mike Schmidt (1980, 1981, 1986) are the only players in history to do it three times, while Dale Murphy is the only other to accomplish the feat multiple times (1982, 1983). The rest of the list includes: Jimmy Rollins (2007), A-Rod (2003), Ichiro (2001), Ivan Rodriguez (1999), Ken Griffey Jr. and Larry Walker (1997), Ken Caminiti (1996), Barry Larkin (1995), Jeff Bagwell (1994), Cal Ripken (1991), Andre Dawson (1987), Willie McGee and Don Mattingly (1985), and Ryne Sandberg (1984). Clearly, Dustin Pedroia’s clean sweep of all three awards in 2008 puts him on a pretty impressive list.

•Furthermore, Pedroia is just the third player in major league history to capture an MVP the year after winning Rookie of the Year. Ripken followed up his rookie year with an MVP in 1983, an...READ MORE!

Published on November 20, 2008 See Comment(s)
Done Deal: Coco Crisp traded to KC for reliever by Jared Carrabis
Red Sox add Ramon Ramirez to bolster the bullpen


It has been confirmed that the Red Sox have officially traded outfielder, Coco Crisp, to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for right-handed reliever, Ramon Ramirez.

Crisp is coming off his best season with the Boston Red Sox and was at his best value for trade since being on the trading block. In 118 games, the speedy center fielder hit .283 in 361 at bats. He was also 20-for-27 in stolen base attempts, a mark that was good for second best on the team.

Coco Crisp played three seasons in a Red Sox uniform but will best be remembered for his spectacular American League pennant clinching catch in 2007. He will also be remembered for his fancy duck and jab moves that he put on James Shields in 2008. Crisp went out with a bang in the 2008 postseason with a game-tying base hit in the eighth inning after a 10-pitch at bat to cap off a 7-run comeback against the Rays in Game 5 of...READ MORE!

Published on November 19, 2008 See Comment(s)
MVPedroia by Jared Carrabis
Dustin Pedroia wins the American League Most Valuable Player Award


Was there ever any doubt? After receiving 16 of the 28 first place votes, Dustin Pedroia has been named the American League Most Valuable Player. I can just see the wood on the top shelf of his trophy case bending into the shape of a “U”. First it was an American League Gold Glove award, then came his Silver Slugger award and finally on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 Dustin Pedroia was named as the Most Valuable Player in the American League ahead of the Twins’ Justin Morneau after receiving a total of 317 points to Morneau’s 257 in the MVP voting.

Pedroia may not be the stereotypical figure that the MVP award normally is associated with such as your every day power-hitting RBI machine, but when the Red Sox needed someone to step up in 2008, Pedroia answered the call. Throughout the 2008 season, Pedroia exemplified what value to a team was all about. With injuries to some of the biggest names on the 25-man roster, the second baseman filled those holes any way that he knew how.

He d...READ MORE!

Published on November 18, 2008 See Comment(s)
Hot Stove Report by Jared Carrabis
Lowell, Lugo, Tek, Dice-K, DP, and more!

First thing’s first, let’s discuss our own players before we get into the possibilities of some new names and faces on the club. The recovery process of Mike Lowell who had surgery on his hip to repair a torn labrum “seems to be going very well” in the eyes of the man behind the knife, surgeon Bryan Kelly. The Red Sox fully expect Lowell to be ready to go by the time position players are due to report to Spring Training. On an even lighter note, Lowell is up and walking around without the crutches that he was rendered to immediately following the procedure.

Now to the fun stuff of this past week…

A report stemming from the Boston Globe has reported that there have been some discussions between the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers concerning a trade in which the names may surprise you. Boston is trying to unload the underachieving shortstop, Julio Lugo to Detroit and the names that have been mentioned that Boston could potentially receive in return may open an eye or two. The dea...READ MORE!

Published on November 16, 2008 See Comment(s)
Dustin Pedroia wins AL Gold Glove by Jared Carrabis
Award is likely the first of many for golden boy

For the first time since 1972, the Red Sox have themselves a Gold Glove award winning second baseman.

One of the greatest, if not the greatest, defensive player in Major League history, Ozzie Smith, preached that saving a run with your glove was just as important as hitting the ball out of the ballpark.

Pedroia's .992 fielding percentage was second among American League second basemen. Mark Ellis of the Oakland Athletics posted a .993 fielding percentage to lead the American League in that category. Nonetheless, Pedroia played almost 364 full innings more than Ellis -- an entire 40 more games played. Pedroia finished the season with 165 more total chances than Ellis and made just 6 just errors in 733 total chances.

The last Red Sox second baseman to win the AL Gold Glove award at that position was Doug Griffin following the 1972 season. Just for the sake of comparison, Pedroia made a whole 9 less errors in 2008 than Griffin in 1972 and Pedroia's fielding percentage was also 1...READ MORE!

Published on November 06, 2008 See Comment(s)
Sox, Epstein agree on multiyear extension by Mike Ghika
Meanwhile, GM touches the bases on numerous off-season topics

Theo Epstein, currently stationed in Dana Point, California for baseball's general managers' mettings, confirmed on Monday, November 3 that he and the club have already agreed upon a multiyear extension.

"That's done," Epstein said. "It was taken care of a while back."

Regardless, this extension was clearly far less painful than what transpired in the fall of 2005, when Epstein snuck out of Fenway in a gorilla suit to avoid a media frenzy on Halloween, and eventually resigned from his position only to return three months later.

But while this recent announcement came as no surprise, it was very Patriot-like of the organization to remain so quiet on the negotiations that took place (a trait the Sox have acquired since the aforementioned fiasco in 2005). It was said that the terms had been in place for months, but the agreement simply had not been signed in ink until recently by the 34-year-old Epstein.

"When you sit back and think about being a general manager, this is exact...READ MORE!

Published on November 04, 2008 See Comment(s)
Lynn-droia by Jared Carrabis
From 1975 to 2008: Comparing Fred Lynn to Dustin Pedroia

In 1975, Red Sox center fielder Fred Lynn edged out the man that stood in front of the big green wall, Jim Rice, for the 1975 Rookie of the Year. In 1975 Fred Lynn led the American League in doubles, slugging percentage and runs scored. Lynn was the runner-up for the batting title with a .331 average and was awarded a Gold Glove award for his outstanding defensive play. All of these achievements culminated when he was presented with the 1975 Most Valuable Player Award. Fred Lynn became the first player in the history of the game to take home the Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season and he did it for our very own Boston Red Sox.

As we fast forward to 2008, we find that Red Sox second baseman, Dustin Pedroia, has find his name linked to the American League MVP crown. In comparison to Fred Lynn's numbers in 1975, Dustin Pedroia also finished second for the American League batting title just two points behind Joe Mauer at a cool .326. Pedroia's average in 2008 fell just five po...READ MORE!

Published on November 03, 2008 See Comment(s)







Jesse Remington
From Silverdale, WA


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